Sheridan v. United States ( 2007 )

F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
January 31, 2007
UNITED STATES CO URT O F APPEALS Elisabeth A. Shumaker
Clerk of Court
TENTH CIRCUIT
JO H N PA U L SH ER ID A N ,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
No. 06-2181
v.
(D.C. No. 04-1345-FHS)
(D .N.M .)
U N ITED STA TES O F A M ER ICA,
Defendant-Appellee.
OR DER AND JUDGM ENT *
Before HA RTZ, EBEL and T YM KOVICH, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff-Appellant John Paul Sheridan appeals the district court’s dismissal
of his pro se civil action against the United States, which — liberally construed
— alleges constitutional violations comm itted by various New M exico state and
county officials. Because we conclude that the district court erred in construing
M r. Sheridan’s complaint as proceeding only against the United States, and
*
After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined
unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist the determination of
this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is
therefore ordered submitted without oral argument. This order and judgment is
not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata,
and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value
consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.
thereby disposing of the complaint strictly on grounds of sovereign immunity, w e
remand the case for further proceedings.
M r. Sheridan’s complaint, though difficult to follow, largely consists of a
narrative description of his misadventures through New M exico state and county
police, court, and corrections systems between 1994 and 1997. During this
period, he alleges that his constitutional rights were violated by parties including
New M exico State Police officers, New M exico district court judges, Socorro
County Sheriff’s officers, the staff of New M exico Corrections Department
prisons, and multiple state public defenders. The caption of his complaint,
however, named only the United States of America as defendant. Because none
of the violations alleged by M r. Sheridan directly involved the federal
government or any federal official, the district court construed M r. Sheridan’s
complaint as “an oblique reference to constitutional violations comm itted by the
United States for its failure, through its agencies and employees, to investigate
and rectify the alleged constitutional violations committed by the various state
officials.” The United States responded to M r. Sheridan’s complaint by moving
to dismiss on the basis of sovereign immunity, and, after M r. Sheridan failed to
respond, the district court granted the motion to dismiss on this ground. 1
1
The district court noted in its order that, under its local rules, M r.
Sheridan’s failure to reply to the United States’ m otion to dismiss constituted his
consent to the court’s granting of the motion irrespective of its merits. D.N.M .
LR-Civ. 7.1(b). The district court did not grant dismissal on this procedural
(continued...)
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Because M r. Sheridan brought his complaint against the U nited States pro
se, we review his pleadings liberally and under a less stringent standard than
applied to pleadings drafted by attorneys. See Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519,
520 (1972); Johnson v. Johnson, 466 F.3d 1213, 1214 (10th Cir. 2006) (per
curiam). In particular, “in a pro se case when the plaintiff names the wrong
defendant in the caption . . . courts may look to the body of the complaint to
determine who the intended and proper defendants are.” Trackwell v. United
States Gov’t, ___F.3d___, 2007 W L 30035 at *1 (10th Cir. Jan. 5, 2007) (italics
added); see also Johnson, 466 F.3d at 1215 (“Despite [the pro se plaintiff]’s
attempts to identify the unnamed officers and the district court’s recognition that
he accused unnamed M CPD officers of false arrest, the district court construed
this claim as one against only the M CPD . By not construing this claim also as
one against the unnamed officers, the district court erred.”).
Insofar as M r. Sheridan’s complaint named the United States as a
defendant, the district court correctly dismissed the claims against it. “It is
1
(...continued)
ground, however, instead basing its dismissal on sovereign immunity grounds
raised in the motion. Because the district court retains discretion under local rule
7.1(b) in determining whether to grant a motion to which the opposing party has
failed to respond, we cannot rely on this rationale as an alternative ground for
affirming the district court’s dismissal. See Ashby v. M cKenna, 331 F.3d 1148,
1151 (10th Cir. 2003) (“[W]ith respect to a matter comm itted to the district
court’s discretion, we cannot invoke an alternative basis to affirm unless we can
say as a matter of law that it would have been an abuse of discretion for the trial
court to rule otherw ise.” (quotation omitted)).
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axiomatic that the United States may not be sued without its consent and that the
existence of consent is a prerequisite for jurisdiction.” U nited States v. M itchell,
463 U.S. 206, 212 (1983). Such consent may not be implied, but must be
“unequivocally expressed.” United States v. Nordic Village, Inc., 503 U.S. 30,
33-34 (1992); United States v. King, 395 U .S. 1, 4 (1969). The U nited States,
however, has not waived its sovereign immunity for constitutional tort claims.
See F.D.I.C. v. M eyer, 510 U.S. 471, 475 (1994) (holding that sovereign
immunity precludes damage claims for constitutional violations against the United
States government).
How ever, liberally construed, we read M r. Sheridan’s complaint as also
seeking to hold the New M exico state and county officials identified in his
narrative responsible for violating his constitutional rights. First, we note that the
bulk of the complaint is devoted to listing the wrongs allegedly visited upon him
by these state officials. Second, the complaint is devoid of allegations directly
implicating federal officials or United States agencies. Third, and most
revealingly, M r. Sheridan concludes his complaint by asking the district court for
“a Federal Investigation and against all defendants and I would ask that these
defendants be held responsible for their actions and prosecuted [sic generally].”
He also asks the court for damages of $700,000, “for petitioners [sic] pain and
suffering due to all defendants stated above.” The context of these requests
makes clear that by “defendants,” M r. Sheridan is referring to the state and county
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officials he believes violated his constitutional rights — not the United States
government. Thus, we conclude that the district court should have construed M r.
Sheridan’s pro se complaint as he appears to have intended it: as an action against
the New M exico state and county officials described in the complaint, seeking to
hold them liable for violating his constitutional rights. See Trackwell,
___F.3d___, 2007 W L 30035 at *1. The most appropriate vehicle for these
claims appears to be 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and we therefore construe the complaint
as invoking this statutory cause of action. See Hall v. Bellmon, 935 F.2d 1106,
1110 (10th Cir. 1991) (“[I]f the court can reasonably read the pleadings to state a
valid claim on which the [pro se] plaintiff could prevail, it should do so despite
the plaintiff’s failure to cite proper legal authority, his confusion of various legal
theories, his poor syntax and sentence construction, or his unfamiliarity with
pleading requirements.”).
Based on the above, we hold that the district court erred by construing M r.
Sheridan’s pro se complaint strictly according to its caption and dismissing it
under this construction because he named the United States as the sole defendant.
Instead, “look[ing] to the body of the complaint to determine who the intended
and proper defendants are,” Trackwell, ___F.3d___, 2007 W L 30035 at *1, M r.
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Sheridan clearly intended to include New M exico state and county officials as
defendants. 2
Accordingly, we A FFIRM the district court’s dismissal of M r. Sheridan’s
claims against the U nited States but REM AND for further proceedings on M r.
Sheridan’s claims against the appropriate New M exico state and county officials.
W e express no opinion on the merits of these claims. On remand, M r. Sheridan
should be given an opportunity to amend his complaint to name the proper
defendants. See Johnson, 466 F.3d at 1215-16.
ENTERED FOR THE COURT
David M . Ebel
Circuit Judge
2
W e mean to express no criticism of the district court for having failed to
follow Trackwell and Johnson, since both opinions w ere issued subsequently to
that court’s order of dismissal. Nevertheless, we are bound to apply the law in
effect at the time of our decision on appeal, even if that law is newly-minted. See
Davidson v. America O nline, Inc., 337 F.3d 1179, 1184 (10th Cir. 2003) (“W here
a change in law occurs while a case is on appeal, we apply the law in effect at the
time of our decision.”).
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